Rare HunterMireille
by emichii
Summary: .HackLegend of the Twilight. Balmung has an extra special event out and Mireille is jumping to attend but it will be the toughest one yet. She's also been a bit quiet lately and Rena thinks its because of Shugo.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own .Hack! Got that everybody?**

Rare Hunter/Mireille

**Hey peoples! How are you? This is my .Hack/Legend of the Twilight fanfic! I hope you like it! Read and Review! From Emichii!**

_CHAPTER 1/AN EXTRA EXTRA EXTRA SPECIAL EVENT!_

"Balmung-san! Wake up! You've fallen asleep at your desk AGAIN!" Reki said loudly.

"Oh!" Balmung opened his eyes and stretched. "Hello Reki, how's it going?"

"What are you talking about?" asked Reki impatiently. "Sir, your new event should be out in 24 hours and you have been asleep?"

Balmung stifled a yawn, "Oh yes. All the 20 million players are waiting for my next event to appear! This is going to be the best event ever!"

"You say that about all your events," Reki said, "and does that mean you've actually planned this for once?"

"Of course I have," Balmung said offended, "This event is especially for players in _the world-_ there are many of them who are starting to call themselves 'rare hunters'. This event is especially for these rare hunters!"

"WWAAHHH! Zefie called me a GANGURO _again_!"

"Hey, don't worry! It's okay! She didn't mean it, Rena!"

"Of course she meant it! She says it on purpose!"

"NYAHAHAHA!"

Rena crossed her arms and glared at Zefie. Mireille was laughing.

"Hey, Mireille?" she asked, a thought suddenly popped up.

"Yeah, Rena?"

"How come Zefie never calls you and Shugo names? How come she never changes _your _hair?" Rena frowned.

Mireille laughed, "I don't know!"

"Because they're nice!" Zefie insisted. "And it's rude talking about someone in their presence!"

Mireille laughed again. "Yeah, you could say that and Shugo, well…" she was quiet for a moment, "I guess everybody loves him to bits… especially Zefie!" she added quickly.

Rena frowned.

"Hey! There's a new event! NYAHA!" Mireille cried.

"Oh! Really?" Ouka added.

Mireille read the event description and punched her fist up into the air. "YAAYYYY! It's a cool event! And there's gonna be RARE stuff all over the place! NYAHAHA!"

"But you haven't even told us what the events about yet," said Shugo.

Hotaru said, "I'm sure it is going to be a wonderful event. Look at how excited Mireille is!"

Mireille grinned at everyone. "It's way cool! See, apparently this event is especially for rare hunters! What we have to do is find a super-duper rare item called the WALKING STONE and bring it back to Balmung and then he'll give us something even more super-duper rarer! NYA HA! We're sooo gonna hafta do this one!"

Shugo raised an eyebrow. "A Walking Stone? Like, a stone that has legs? What on earth?"

"That's not what it is!" Mireille whined as she raised a fist to hit Shugo. "I have no idea why it's called what it is, but obviously there's some reason! We'll find out about its name when we get that item!"

Ouka sighed. "But why should we help you on this event just for you rare hunters? What's in it for us?"

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? We always go through everything together!" Mireille cried and stared at Ouka with shiny, tear-filled eyes.

"Hey, it was only a joke!" Ouka said defensively.

Shugo said, "Of course we'll be on this quest together! Mireille, we're all gonna get that Walking Stone!"

"Aw, thanks Shugo!" Mireille said.

"Now where is that item?" Rena wondered.

"It's on a new island named Lilac Island! There's a boat at the port we can take to get there!" Mireille cried, "Let's go! NYAHA!"

"Wow! Is the Walking Stone around _here_?" Shugo gasped as he looked around the island.

It was all in a deep shade of gray, black, purple and green. There were trees and rocks and a huge mountain at the edge of the island, as well as thousands and hundreds of other PCs.

"Wow, there are so many people here!" Rena said.

Hotaru hugged her grunty and said, "Oh! Mr. Grunty is hungry again!"

She went to fetch food for her grunty so Shugo said, "So let's get going now, Mireille."

"Okay!"

Rena said, "We'll catch up to you two later, Ouka, Zefie and I are gonna wait for Hotaru."

"So the Walking Stone is around here, right?" Shugo said.

"Yeah!" Mireille said.

They were walking towards the mountain where there were clusters if trees and rocky caves and boulders all over the place.

Mireille looked up into the air and sniffed. "Nya! I think it's gonna rain."

"Huh?" Shugo saw that the sky had grown extremely dark in just seconds. The temperature had also dropped by far.

"Let's go back to the others-" Mireille started, but suddenly a thick mist started surrounding them and it started to rain hard.

"Mireille!" Shugo cried, "Where are you?"

Mireille looked around for Shugo but everywhere she looked was covered in mist. "Shugo!"

"I'm over here!" Shugo battled with the wind and rain to get through to Mireille. He grabbed her hand and pulled her out of the mist. They ran to the nearest shelter, a dark rock cave.

Mireille tripped as she ran.

"C'mon, we're almost there!" He assured her.

Unfortunately for them, there were new monsters in that cave.

Shugo got hurt but he finally killed them all and they huddled together in the shelter.

"Thanks, Shugo," Mireille smiled. Then her eyes widened. "Shugo, you're hurt!

She used a healing potion on Shugo and Shugo said, "Thanks Mireille!" he grinned at her.

Mireille stared at him. Then she grinned back.

Rena, Ouka, Zefie and Hotaru stood together in a building where heaps of other players crowded around, waiting for the rain to stop.

Rena looked worried, "Look at how hard it's raining,"

"Oh my," Hotaru cried, "Shugo and Mireille are still out there!"

Ouka shrugged, "Don't worry about them. Shugo can look after himself and Mireille."

Rena frowned, "still…" she said, "I'm worried about them. Who knows where they went? They went to search for the Walking Stone, they could be in the middle of nowhere, where its full of ghost and spirit type monsters." she shivered.

Zefie took the chance to poke Rena around a bit. "Oh yeah, Rena, ghost and spirit type monsters… aren't you eager to fight them?"

"SHUT UP!" Rena cried.

She stood defiantly at the window and stared out at the pouring rain. "As soon as the rain stops, I'm going out to look for them."

Mireille rested her head against Shugo's shoulder, her eyes closed as she slept lightly.

Shugo found himself blushing as he watched her.

"Shugo?" she said.

"Huh? Oh you're awake," Shugo said.

Mireille kept her eyes closed but kept talking. "When the rain stops, let's go look for the Walking Stone,"

"Oh yeah, of course!"

Mireille frowned. She opened her eyes, raised her head and stared at Shugo. "You know what, Shugo? Sometimes, I get confused and jealous of you…"

Shugo was confused. What on earth was she talking about?

Mireille continued, "because you and Rena are the heroes. I know I'm a rare hunter but…" she lowered her eyes, "sometimes I just wanna be brave and strong like you and Rena. You two are the heroes and everything… sometimes… I just wanna play a bigger role like you guys…"

Shugo didn't know what to say.

Mireille looked at her hands apologetically. "I'm sorry. I just… I just wanna be special too! I want to be the hero too… I… Shugo… I-I-I…"

Shugo watched Mireille. Then he said, "I know…" he smiled to show her everything was okay, "that's exactly why this story is just about you. And you- you're a great rare hunter, it doesn't matter whose the hero and stuff, because you're special to me, you're my friend, just like everybody else. And as soon as the rain stops, we'll go look for that jumping rock."

Mireille stuck out her lip. "That's the Walking Stone!"

"Yeah…"

Mireille went back to sleep, resting her head on Shugo's shoulder and Shugo sighed.

He watched the rain pour down and wondered. There _was _something special about Mireille, and it was growing more and more. And it also worried him- how… how did Mireille feel about him?

With her so close to him, he was afraid of what Rena would think. And he couldn't stop blushing. His face was so hot!

JUST WHAT WAS GOING ON HERE?

**HI! HI! HI! Did you like it? Was it good? Read and Review everybody!**


	2. Chapter 2

**HI! HI! HI! Did you like it? Was it good? Read and Review everybody!**

_CHAPTER 2/THE GREATEST RARE HUNTER!_

Rena hadn't been separated from Shugo before so she was really in distress.

Ouka shrugged, "Hey, Rena, you have to learn to fend for yourself instead of depending on Shugo to rescue you all the time,"

"I know," she said, "but it's such a pain leveling up like this,"

Ouka continued, "But if you can make it fun for yourself, leveling up won't be such a pain anymore. Like Shugo. You know how he got so strong? Because he started training by himself! In fact, I can imagine him training right now!"

Shugo killed monster after monster as he and Mireille walked through a dark cave.

Mireille said, "Since when did you get so strong, Shugo? I mean, you told us you went training on your own but…"

Shugo smiled, "Yeah but I figured, if I like The World so much, I wanted to make even training fun for myself. That way I could play and get stronger."

Mireille smiled weakly. "Yeah, but… you only started recently, I really can't believe how fast you've made progress…"

"Hey, don't worry," replied Shugo. "I might be strong but when it comes to collecting rare items, you're the best rare hunter I know!"

Mireille brightened. "Nya! Thanks Shugo!"

She flung herself at Shugo and wrapped her arms around his neck, causing Shugo to fall over backwards and crash into the wall.

"Ohhh…" he groaned.

"I'm sorry!" she cried, worried.

Shugo managed to smile at Mireille. "That's okay."

Balmung frowned at the computer screen.

"What is it, Balmung san?" Reki asked.

"Just monitoring the first eager participant of my event's progress. I'm really surprised at how little time they took to go so far." Balmung motioned for Reki to go to his own computer. "Can you check out just who these users are?"

Reki blinked at the screen. "Sir, that's Shugo. But he's not with the rest of his party, he's only with another girl PC called Mireille."

"Mireille?"

"Yes."

"Well, if that isn't Mistral's daughter. What a coincidence. I suppose Mireille is another Rare Hunter…" Balmung paused, deep in thought.

"Oh no, Balmung-san, what kind of plot are you cooking up now?"

Mireille stared at the sign on the door in front of them.

"YOU MUST KILL 100 MONSTERS TO PASS THIS POINT."

"But I don't know what kind of monsters are around here," she whimpered.

"It'll be fine," Shugo said.

And they were attacked!

Mireille was everywhere at once, striking at unfortunate monsters with her staff. Shugo killed monster after monster.

The monsters attacked, reared back, then attacked again.

Mireille called back to Shugo, "Shugo, I don't know how many monsters we've killed, I haven't been counting-"

Just then a monster pushed Mireille back and they stampeded!

"Mireille! Mireille!" Shugo cried.

Mireille HP was suffering horribly, so he started clawing around crazily in the crowd of monsters, trying to find Mireille. When he found her, he pulled her up and draped her over him, so that he could carry her.

Shugo battled valiantly.

When Mireille woke up, she was riding on Shugo's back; while Shugo was still killing.

"Shugo, what's happening?"

Shugo looked back and was relieved to see Mireille up again. "Don't worry, we've almost reached 100!"

"But you've been killing all this stuff yourself? Just cuz I got hurt? I'm sorry! I'm so selfish; I know you're doing all this just so I can complete this quest!" Mireille cried.

"Don't sweat it, Mireille, it was great!"

Just then, he finished off another monster and the others disappeared. A huge creaking sound and then the door opened.

"Wow!" breathed Mireille.

"C'mon, let's go," Shugo said and then automatically reached for Mireille's hand.

"Oh…" she let Shugo hold her hand and secretly liked it.

Ouka frowned. "Oh I'm sorry! You guys will have to look for Mireille and Shugo by yourselves. I told Kaz I was gonna meet him at Mac Anu now."

"That's okay," Rena said.

Hotaru said, "See you later, Ouka."

Zefie grinned. "Bye, doggie!"

"I AM NOT A DOG!" Ouka turned into her wolf-form in a huff and left.

"Hey, look, there are two more people up ahead." Mireille said.

"Yeah, I think they're all doing this quest as well." Shugo said.

They went up to them.

It was another PC with a scowl on his face. He had a checkered scarf and purple hair, as well as a long blue cape billowing around him.

"Wow!" Mireille gasped. "That's a really rare cape!"

The guy ignored her. He turned to his companion, a girl with short green hair and brown shorts and a black pauncho.

"What do you want?" the girl asked rudely.

"We're here to complete Balmung's event!" Shugo said.

The guy sneered at them, "You two? You look like newbies!" He turned to Mireille, "And you're supposed to be a Rare Hunter, right? Those rare items are so dumb that they're not rare anymore."

"What?" Mireille's eyes slowly filled with tears.

"Hey!" Shugo cried angrily, "Shut up and stop insulting us! We're gonna get that Walking Stone and complete this quest!"

"Huh, I doubt it!" The girl sniffed. "We're the greatest Rare Hunters out there, no-one's gonna beat us,"

"We'll see about that," said Shugo.

"Let's go, Shugo," whispered Mireille, "We can do this!"

**Read and review, everybody! Thanx for reviewing if you reviewed! It makes me happy. Sadly, not many people have read this yet, so if you read it, please review! THANKS! Emichii!**


	3. Chapter 3

**HI! Emichii here! Yo Saz the Spaz! Hi! Don't forget to review!**

_CHAPTER 3/SEPERATED_

Rena, Zefie and Hotaru headed towards the cave/mountain thingy where Shugo and Mireille had gone.

But when they arrived, they couldn't find the entrance.

"How are we supposed to get in?" Rena whined. "What if they got trapped inside?"

Zefie gave Rena a disgusted look. "How stupid are you, Ganguro? We get on to the top of the mountain and then find a way down!"

"WAAHHH! Shugo! Zefie called me a Ganguro AGAIN!" Rena cried.

Zefie shook her head slowly. "Did you forget? Onii-chan and Mireille went off before us!"

"Stop calling Shugo your brother!" Rena shouted.

Hotaru laughed. "Hee hee, you two never get along… come on now," Hotaru lead the way to the top of the mountain.

Mireille and Shugo moved quickly through the cave, quickly making their way to the centre of the mountain. However, Balmung had more tricks up his sleeve. He wasn't about to let Mireille become the Greatest Rare Hunter in The World without a few tough challenges.

Mireille was walking quite a few metres ahead of Shugo, singing happily and Shugo could only laugh at her antics.

Then all of a sudden he heard her scream.

"Mireille!" he cried out and ran to catch up to her.

Mireille had tripped over and was just picking herself up from the stony ground. Shugo ran up to her to help her and then Mireille felt herself being lifted.

"Shugo!" she cried out.

Shugo stared in horror at Mireille being caught in the tough rope net then hung from the ceiling.

"Don't worry, Mireille, I'll save you!" Shugo cried, but try as he might, he couldn't reach the net. Shugo gasped for air as he rested against the wall for more energy.

"Mireille, it's okay. Just don't worry," he gasped.

Mireille was watching from the net, tears falling from her eyes. "I'm not worried about me, I'm worried about you! You're trying so hard to help me and I can't do anything!"

She reached out and Shugo could see her hands, tangled in the ropes, bruised and bloody from the tough ropes. Mireille struggled but couldn't get out. Crying silently, she stuck out her hand and called to Shugo, "It's okay, I can fend for myself! You should get outta here before you get hurt even more for my sake!"

"No way Mireille!" Shugo shouted. "We're in this together, we can pull through!"

He grabbed Mireille's hand and she shivered at his soft touch.

Just then, the net shook and Mireille felt herself tumbling out, falling down to the stone ground. "WAH!" she screamed.

"Wait! I've got you!" Shugo dove forward and Mireille fell straight into his arms.

"Um…" Mireille gazed at Shugo, as he looked back at her. A blush spread over her cheeks and she looked at the ground. "…Thanks…"

Shugo blushed and looked away. "It was nothing,"

_Shugo felt himself blushing. What's going on? He wondered. This is just a game!_

Mireille could feel the ground shaking. All of a sudden the ground was breaking and glass shattering. Glass? She wondered, why is there glass here?

"WAH!" Suddenly a huge jagged piece of glass fell down and embedded itself in the ground, separating Mireille and Shugo. The glass was so huge that it blocked off the entire path.

"Shugo!" cried Mireille. She looked at Shugo through the glass, crying.

"Mireille!" Shugo cried. "What's going on here?"

_Shugo bit his nails and wiped his sweaty hands on his jumper. Why is this happening? Is this the way the quest works?_

Shugo grabbed his swords and was just about to break the glass when he heard Mireille scream.

_Mirei stared at the screen. She saw herself being lifted off the ground once again but this time it was like wind. There was a great wind pulling her off her feet!_

Mireille squealed as a gigantic wind, a whirlwind lifted her up and started to carry her through the tunnel. She screamed for Shugo.

She could see Shugo behind the glass, staring in amazement.

"WAH! SHUGO!" she screamed.

Shugo immediately grabbed his swords and attacked the glass. The glass was tough but just when he had cracked it, he saw Mireille disappearing into the tunnel.

"Mireille!" he cried. Angrily and obviously upset, he kicked down the glass and ran after her into the darkness.

Reki watched Balmung interested. "Balmung-san, what are you thinking?" Reki wondered.

Balmung smiled. "This is going to be such a wonderful quest. I am really going to enjoy watching these two complete the quest."

Reki hurried over and looked at the screen. "What have you done?" he cried. "You separated them!"

Balmung said, "That's the point! They'll soon learn how much they actually need each other. And Mireille, she'll need a lot of tough challenges to prove she can really become the Greatest Rare Hunter in the World!"

"The greatest?" repeated Reki. "That means that the item you're gonna reward them with must be extremely rare- the rarest ever."

"…yeah." Balmung said sheepishly.

Reki sighed. He could read Balmung like a book. "Does this mean you haven't even thought about what the prize is?"

Balmung said defiantly. "No! I've thought about it a lot! I just can't think about what kind of item can be the rarest. I've already decided that the rare hunter that can actually complete this quest and survive it will be the Greatest Rare Hunter in the World. I really want to see Mistral's kid complete this, but I can't think of what kind of super-rare item will be the prize."

Then something made Balmung turn his face back towards the screen. Reki watched Balmung's face lighten up.

Balmung smiled a secretive smile to himself. "I've got it. Only the Greatest Rare Hunter in the World could ever be worthy of this item!" He started typing on the keyboard madly.

Reki smiled and shrugged. He said to himself quietly, "Perhaps Mireille has already surpassed Mistral."

_Shugo sighed as he slumped over in his seat. What am I gonna do? I lost Mireille!_

Shugo ran after Mireille in the dark tunnel, but there was no sign of her. I hope she's okay, he thought.

"Mireille! Don't worry! I'm coming!" he called.

_Mirei looked down at her hands. They were so sweaty from clutching the controller. She was shocked to find that her eyes were wet, she had actually been crying for real while she was playing. _

Mireille felt herself being carried down the tunnel. It was so fast, almost traveling 100km an hour. Then she felt herself being dumped down. She tumbled down and hit her head on the stone ground.

Mireille lay unconscious on the ground.

**That was the 3rd chapter, peoples and it was really good! yep, the story's really moving now! And everybody, look out for the songfic coming up soon! Read and Review! **


	4. Chapter 4

**Hi! Emichii here! THIS IS CHAPTER 4! YAAYYYY! Oh I don't own .Hack/Legend of the Twilight. Read and Review! By the way, why on earth am I writing a Mireille/Shugo fanfic? There's absolutely no hint of them being together in the manga but because I love them both- they're the best characters! YAY! Mireille is soooo cute! And they would look so cute together! **

_CHAPTER 4/WITHOUT YOU BY MY SIDE_

When Mireille opened her eyes, she was sitting alone in the dark on the stone ground.

"Ow…" she groaned as she heaved herself up and rubbed her head gingerly. She got up and looked around. She could just make out in the dim light which direction she should go. But it was so silent.

Shugo, where are you? She thought.

Rena, Zefie and Hotaru walked along the top of the mountain/cavey thing. Rena was getting really worried. "Do you think they're all right?"

Hotaru said, "Don't worry, Shugo can look after her,"

Zefie walked along, humming a sad tune.

Then it started raining.

"Why'd you do that?" Rena cried. "You made it rain!"

Zefie shrugged. "I'm bored."

"You're bored! Mireille and Shugo are stuck down there, probably in danger and all you can say is THAT YOU'RE BORED!" Rena exploded.

Zefie said, "I'm an AI. And if I actually bothered, I could probably track them down."

"THEN TRACK THEM DOWN!"

"But I think they'll be fine so stop being a worrywart." she continued.

"AARRGGHHH!"

"Hey, you guys!" Hotaru called. "Look over here! There's a tunnel going downwards into the mountain!"

"It's pretty dark," Zefie said, "Let's go."

Carefully, the three of them plus the grunty made their way into the tunnel.

Shugo ran through the dark tunnel, hoping against hope that he'd find Mireille there, and that she'd smile at him and tell him everything was alright, but there was no sign of Mireille.

Mireille was surprised when she saw the fork in the road.

Which way? She wondered. Maybe she should just wait for Shugo, but who knew how long he would take to catch up to her?

Just then, her blood froze as she thought of something. What if Shugo didn't chase after her? What if he just left her there?

For once, Mireille paused and didn't know what to do. Oh well, she thought, I'll just go the left way. She turned into the left way and prayed silently that Shugo would find her.

Shugo had an idea. He remembered that Mireille had told him about speed charms, so he equipped one and went faster than ever. But when he came to a fork in the road he had no idea where to go. Shrugging, he went in the direction to the right.

And he kept hoping he would find Mireille soon.

Just then, he heard a huge rumbling sound and from the ceiling, Rena, Zefie, Hotaru and her grunty, came flying out of a tunnel and landed on top of Shugo.

"ARRGH!" he cried.

Shugo picked himself up off the ground.

"SHUGO! I'm so glad I found you again!" Rena cried.

"Onii-chan!" Zefie tugged on Shugo's hand.

"Oh! Zefie! Rena!" Shugo said, "I'm glad you guys are here."

Hotaru looked around, "Where's Mireille?"

"I don't know," Shugo said, "that's why I'm looking for her. She got caught in a rope net and then, when I rescued her, there was a weird earth-quake thing, and we got separated- she got carried this way by a huge whirlwind."

"We haven't seen her," said Hotaru.

"Oh no…" groaned Shugo. He said, "I can imagine her now, she's all alone in the dark in this weird place."

"Don't fret," Hotaru said, "this is just a game, I'm sure we can contact her."

_I know this is just a game, thought Shugo, but it seems real to me! And Mireille is a real person!_

But when Rena tried to send a message to Mireille, she couldn't connect with her. "What's going on? Why can't we contact her?"

"Oh no…" Shugo groaned again.

Zefie said, "Let me try,"

The AI concentrated hard, and finally managed a shaky connection. There was a screen and it showed Mireille on it. She was bruised, battered and dirty but alright. She looked so lost; Shugo's heart went out to her.

"Mireille!" he cried.

Mireille lifted her head and saw the screen where Shugo and the others were watching her with worried expressions on their faces.

"Shugo!" she cried.

"Where are you?" he asked.

"I don't know! All I know is that I went down the left road in the fork. Please find me, Shugo! I don't know what to do!" she cried.

All of a sudden, there was a huge shaking and fizzing sound. The screen started disappearing and Mireille felt herself falling downwards, through a hole that just appeared under her feet.

"Shugo!" she cried.

"Mireille!" Shugo yelled. The screen shook and lost contact completely.

"We have to go find her!" he said. The others were quiet.

Rena wondered, "I wonder what just happened."

Zefie said, "This quest is obviously very advanced, even I can't break through the firewalls they installed around here."

Hotaru yawned. "I'm tired… I'm gonna hit the hay. I'm sure Mireille will be okay. After all, this is a game."

Rena nodded, "Yeah, Onii-chan,"

Zefie looked at Shugo to see what his reaction would be.

"Bye, Shugo, Rena, Zefie. I'll see you tomorrow." Hotaru went offline.

_Reina tapped Shugo on the shoulder. "Onii-chan, we really have to go to bed now, goodnight,"_

Rena went offline. Only Shugo and Zefie were left.

"I guess you don't need to go to bed, do you?" Shugo said.

"No. I don't know what sleeping is like," Zefie replied.

"Well, let's go look for Mireille then," Shugo said.

"Okay," Zefie took Shugo's hand and they walked back to the forked road and went into the left road.

"I saw Mireille fall down a hole in the ground just before we lost connection," Zefie said. "I think that was some punishment for breaking through the firewalls, even though it was only for a few seconds."

"I hope we can find her," Shugo said, "Here, you can borrow this speed charm,"

They ran to where Mireille was before and found the hole Mireille went down.

"HEY MIREILLE! CAN YOU HEAR ME?" shouted Shugo.

No answer.

"We'll just have to go after her." Shugo said. He and Zefie went down the hole and found themselves sliding down a chute and landing in a dark rocky cave. Walking around, Shugo still couldn't find Mireille.

"Can you track her down, Zefie?" he asked.

"I think she went that way," Zefie pointed in front of her, which led them to a huge, cave.

It was beautiful, Mireille thought.

The ceiling was high and there was light showing from the top. The most amazing thing was that there was a beautiful lake, a beautiful azure blue- in the cave and there was bright green grass and flowers all around her.

_Mirei stared in wonder at the beautiful place shown on the screen. The World never ceased to amaze her. It was all so real. She couldn't see any pixels or any flaws in the art. It was so beautiful._

I wish Shugo could see this, she thought.

"Wow, just look at this! It's so beautiful!" Shugo said. "I wonder if Mireille is seeing this right now."

"I'm sure she is," Zefie smiled.

Shugo nodded and yawned. Then he yawned again.

_Shugo could feel his eyelids drooping. He was tired but he forced himself to keep playing, but eventually, he had to close his eyes and sleep._

_Reina, walking past in her PJ's, smiled at the sight of her brother, asleep at the computer again. She could see that on the screen, Shugo was sleeping with Zefie sitting at his side._

_Onii-chan always tries so hard in The World. Too bad he didn't try as hard at school, she thought._

_But it didn't matter; she knew Shugo wouldn't give up now, not when he was so close to Mireille._

**Emichii here! Whassup? How are you all? I really love this fanfic! I've been working very hard on this fanfic- I actually updated this 3 times this week! WOW! And I'd really love it if you all review! THANKS FOR READING! **


	5. Chapter 5

**WHASSUP! Hey, I'm Emichii! This is my fanfic Rare Hunter/Mireille! And this is chapter 5! And let's talk about the story. This story is about Mireille because she's just so cute! I love her! She's my fave character and it only seems right she should have her own story! And I guess you can say it's MireillexShugo, and that's kinda odd. The reason is cuz they're my fave characters so obviously I put them together! And they look cute together! Okay! Enough talking! READ ON! Oh and don't forget to review! It just makes me SOOO HAPPY when people review! Thankyou!**

_CHAPTER 5/DON'T UNDERESTIMATE IT!_

"Shugo… Shugo!"

Shugo grunted and rolled over to his left. The voice spoke again, now shaking him insistently.

"Shugo! Wake up!" The voice insisted.

Shugo seemed to recognize the voice. Groaning, he heaved himself up and stared into Mireille's eyes.

"Mireille!" he cried. "You're all right!"

Without realizing it, he found himself grabbing onto her shoulders and then hugging her to him.

"Um, Shugo?" Mireille stammered. "What are you doing?"

Shugo's face turned red and blotchy. He released Mireille and apologized, "I'm sorry, Mireille, I was just so worried, after all that."

Mireille gave him a sweet smile. "That's okay." She looked at the ground, her own face blushing, "I just wanna say thanks…" she looked back up at him and her eyes were teary. "I can't believe you went to all that trouble just to find me again. I-I I'm sorry I keep getting you into these messes!"

Her eyes filled up and all of a sudden, she was the one holding onto Shugo and crying.

"Mireille! It's okay, just stop crying, okay?" Shugo said.

"Oh… yeah. Sorry."

There was silence for a while and then the AI came over and commented. "Oh, Shugo, you're awake!"

"Zefie?" Shugo said. "Oh yeah, you were here too…" he stared around him at the beautiful landscape. "This place really is cool, isn't it?"

"Yeah!" Mireille chimed in happily. "Nyaha! It's so realistic! Sometimes I completely forget that I'm playing in a game!"

Shugo was relieved that Mireille had cheered up so he said, "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go get that Walking Stone!"

Reki smiled at his screen. He was glad to see Mireille and Shugo back together again.

"Oh Balmung-san, it seems that Mireille and Shugo managed to find each other again," he said.

"Well, they've certainly shown us that they're totally capable of working together." Balmung looked at the multiple screens around him. He saw the other Rare Hunters wandering around and looked back at Mireille and Shugo.

"Hmm…" he thought. His eyes sparkled.

Reki sighed. "Please, Balmung, don't be thinking of any more cruel things now. And don't separate them again!"

Balmung smiled. "Why not? No-one's going to get any Walking Stone or prize unless they can show me they're worthy of being the Greatest Rare Hunter in The World."

Rena logged in and immediately saw Hotaru and Ouka waiting for her.

She rushed over to them and greeted them.

"Gee, it feels kinda weird without Shugo and Mireille," Hotaru observed.

Rena agreed with her, "Yeah, I even kinda miss that stuck-up AI."

"Let's get going then," Ouka said. "I bet they'll be heaps of good fights in there!"

They re-entered the cavey mountain thing and immediately were overwhelmed by spirit-type monsters.

"EEEKKK!" Rena screamed. "Ghosts! WAAHH!"

Ouka was calmly fighting and defending the others. Hotaru remarked, puzzled. "I don't understand. Last time, we came in here, there were no monsters at all. Why's this happening? Are they trying to stall us?"

Ouka finished off the last monsters and said blankly. "C'mon, there's gotta be something tougher that _that _around here!"

Ouka, Hotaru and a scared Rena made their way through the tunnels towards the center of the mountain where the Walking Stone was hidden.

Mireille, Zefie and Shugo were making good progress towards the center of the mountain. According to Mireille, the Walking Stone was somewhere in the middle of the mountain.

They were almost towards the core when they happened to meet the two rare hunters from before.

"Hey, it's you two again!" Shugo said.

The girl sniffed as if answering him was a waste of her precious time. "What now? I told you before, we're gonna get the Walking Stone so you guys just give up already!"

"No way!" Mireille cried, fighting spirit rising up in her. "We're gonna get it and I'm gonna be the Greatest Rare Hunter in The World!"

"Dream on," the guy said. "When it comes to Rare Hunting, We're the best. No-one can beat Raiou and Jayel!"

Jayel, the girl said, "So you guys get lost!"

"No way," Shugo said.

Raiou narrowed his eyes and peered at Shugo through two narrow slits. "You wanna fight?"

"Did I just hear someone say fight?" A voice interrupted.

Shugo and Mireille looked up, first in alarm and then in relief as they saw the shape-shifting Wolf PC.

"Ouka!"

**A little short but it'll be ok since I updated 3 times last week! Read and review!**


	6. Chapter 6

**HI EVERYBODY! Emichii here! Oh and yeah still need to get used to going back to school again but now I'm such a slacker. OHHH… Yeah, I am sorry… ohhh I'm such a slacker, I can't get back to paying attention in class or doing my homework… and I can't stop reading manga under my desk either! WAAHHH! I'm sorry I promise I will start concentrating again! Wait, why am I apologizing? To hell with it! There's a chapter to be written! Emichii is proud to bring you Chapter 6! **

_CHAPTER 6/VIRTUAL REALITY_

"OUKA!" Mireille cried. Her very very very best friend in The World was here to save her and Shugo.

Ouka glared at Raiou and Jayel. "They call me Ouka, the divine fist and I haven't lost a fight yet. You better not mess with my friends or you'll regret it!"

Raiou and Jayel exchanged glances and shuffled off into the shadows.

"THANKS OUKA!" Mireille flung her arms around Ouka.

"Oh my…" Ouka smiled. "Hey, glad to be of help. I'm so glad we're all together again."

"Shugo!" Rena ran up to her brother.

Hotaru and her grunty followed close behind and started fussing all over Mireille and Shugo. "Oh! I am so happy we're not separated."

"Yeah," Ouka winked. "What kind of party are we if we don't stick together in everything we do?"

Mireille brushed away tears that were starting to fall. "Oh, you guys…"

Shugo smiled. He placed a hand on Mireille's shoulder. "Yeah, Mireille, we're all in this together, and we're gonna help you be the best Rare Hunter in The World!"

_Mirei brushed away tears that were threatening to fall. She clutched the controller and smiled. The World wouldn't be anything without her friends._

"Awwwwwwwwwwww…" Reki sighed. "That's so sweet," he said as he looked at the screen, where he was watching Shugo and his party.

"Yes, Reki, it's sweet," Balmung said flatly.

Reki turned to face Balmung. "What's wrong with you, don't you think that's just too sweet?"

Balmung stared at Reki with a ferocity he'd never seen before. Reki wondered, "What's wrong, Balmung-san?"

"They shouldn't be going around with smiles and sappy sugar-sweet little monsters in their way! This is big! They're not gonna get the Walking Stone like that!" Balmung started attacking the keyboard.

Reki sighed. "I suppose this means they're in for a lot more to come," he said to himself quietly.

Rena had never seen Mireille so happy, not even when she had an extremely rare item. She smiled in relief as she watched Mireille walk in front of them, humming and waving her staff.

"Gosh, I'm glad she's so happy," she said.

"What do you mean?" wondered Hotaru.

Rena turned to Hotaru, "I've known her longer than you have, Hotaru-chan, and I can tell whenever something wrong with her." she sighed and looked into the distance. "Before Mireille got so hooked on this quest I could tell something was up with her. And I thought that it had something to do with Shugo,"

Hotaru looked worried. She asked, "What happened? Why do you think so?"

Rena smiled weakly.

_FLASHBACK(S)_

"_Hi Mireille!" Rena surprised Mireille. _

"_WAAHH!" Mireille cried out. She had been sitting quietly daydreaming and looking at Shugo from the distance. _

"_What were you doing?" Rena asked._

_Mireille paused. "Um… thinking…" _

_Rena saw that she looked back towards Shugo as she answered her and that her eyes looked sad._

"_Mireille? What are you doing?" Rena bent over Mireille as she emptied out her inventory, inspecting everything._

"_Oh, just having a look at all my rare items! Nya-han!" Mireille smiled._

_Rena couldn't help noticing how she clutched the cat ears that Shugo had helped her get when they first met. _

_Mireille was the most worried whenever Shugo was hurt. _

_It all added up. Mireille loved Shugo._

_END FLASHBACK(S)_

Hotaru looked at Mireille and then at Shugo. "Mireille-chan does know that this is a game, right?"

Rena got a little huffy. "Are you saying that my brother is a weirdo that might be a completely insane guy in reality?"

Hotaru giggled. "Of course not! It's just well… this is a game, Mireille's sad because she knows there's no chance of her ever getting together with Shugo,"

"Yeah," Rena agreed. "But I feel sorry for her…"

Mireille looked back at Rena and Hotaru. "What's with you guys?" she cried. "We don't have all day! The Walking Stone is waiting for us!"

Shugo added, "Yeah, guys! We can't keep stalling!"

He and Mireille smiled at each other and started to run. Rena and Hotaru had to catch up with them.

Hotaru said, "Rena-chan, don't worry, I'm sure everything will be fine."

Shugo and Mireille battled hard and with the help of Ouka, Rena and Hotaru, they moved towards the Walking Stone.

"NYA-HAAAAAAANN! It's here! I can smell it! The Walking Stone is here!" Mireille cried.

"COOL! Where is it!" Shugo cried.

"It's there! It's there! Nya-ha!" Mireille pointed to a green rock, about the size of a rockmelon.

Shugo grabbed Mireille's hand and they both ran to the Walking Stone. All of a sudden, Rena, Hotaru and Ouka heard a surprised shriek.

"What happened?" Rena ran up to Shugo and Mireille.

She saw it and gaped. How? How was it possible?

The Walking Stone was sitting there, on a stand on the rocky ground but there were huge trenches around it, like never-ending pits. But the pits were filled with boiling lava.

"Yeah, I know. I saw it too." said the sullen voice as Raiou and Jayel emerged from a corner.

"Balmung is such a jerk!" Jayel cried and stomped her foot onto the ground. "How on earth are we supposed to get the Walking Stone now?"

"Balmung is not a jerk!" Rena defended her hero. "He saved my life more than once, I'm sure this item is just a lot rarer than it seems!"

"OHH MY GOSH! IT'S SO ADORABLE!" Hotaru gushed. "The Walking Stone is a Turtle! See, it looks like a stone but it walks! Oh gosh, IT'S SO CUTE!"

_Sniff, sniff. _Someone was crying.

"Mireille, are you alright?" Shugo looked at Mireille.

Mireille turned away and wiped her eyes. She turned and faced Shugo bravely, "I know it seems impossible, but I'm still gonna get that stone…" she smiled at Shugo, "because you taught me never to give up and even if I might die, I still wanna reach out and grab it…"

Mireille took a step to the edge.

"Mireille! Don't do it!" Shugo pleaded. "I know you're a Rare Hunter to the end but there's more to The World than that!"

Mireille said, "I know but… this is different. I'm doing this because of something else. After all, I've got nothing to lose."

"WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!" he yelled. Shugo went up to Mireille and gripped her shoulders. "You can't just give up now!"

Mireille smiled sadly. "I'm not giving up! I'm going for what I want most!" she took another step towards the edge and said, "Because if I'm gonna be the Greatest Rare Hunter in The World, I'm not gonna give up, THAT'S WHY I'M GOING FOR THIS WALKING STONE!"

Before anyone could object or step in her way, Mireille took a flying leap towards the pit.

"MIREILLE!" cried Shugo.

Mireille flew towards the Walking Stone, grabbed it and hugged it to her chest.

Everybody else was shocked into silence.

But it wasn't over that easy. Mireille may have grabbed the Walking Stone, ahem, the turtle, but she hadn't stopped flying from the force her leap had given her.

Shugo stared in horror as he watched Mireille, the following scenes to be forever etched in his mind.

Mireille and the Walking Stone fell down into the bubbling hot lava.

"MIREILLE!" Shugo yelled.

He couldn't even see Mireille's face but he was sure that she was crying.

Mireille felt herself immersed in the lava but it didn't even feel like lava.

_DUH! She was playing in a game, idiot! Mirei scolded herself._

No, it wasn't like lava at all. From the top, it seemed so dangerous, all red and hot but as soon as she fell in, it felt cool and wet… like water.

It felt like she was drowning, the bubbles from where she was trying to breathe floated towards the surface. Mireille felt herself continue to fall downwards.

From the top it had seemed like a bottomless pit. If it was then she knew she would die soon. But she was just a game character.

_Just? Just a game character? What are you talking about! Mirei glanced apologetically at Mireille in the computer. She had lied. She had given up. Mirei had given up. _

_DON'T GIVE UP NOW! The Mireille spirit from inside her seemed to arouse her. DON'T GIVE UP NOW! JUST BECAUSE YOU'RE DROWING DOESN'T MEAN YOU'RE DEAD!_

Mireille opened her eyes. She was still in the water/lava. She was still drowning. She looked at the Walking Stone.

The turtle was swimming along in the water, happily. It was headed towards somewhere. Mireille started to follow it, swimming as hard as possible, maybe it would lead her to air.

Mireille and the Walking Stone sat in the dark, breathing in the life-giving air.

They were sitting in a platform immersed in the water that, for some reason, was sticking up above the water but it was still a part of the cave.

Mireille poked at the turtle.

"I really messed it now," she told it. "I tried to give up. I took up Rare Hunting over my friends." She buried her head in her hands. "It doesn't matter anymore if I've got the Walking Stone; I just wish I was with my friends. And Shugo."

**Wasn't that good? Wow! It was great! Read and review!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Yo! Whassup everybody! Emichii here! And I'm happy to present… TA-DAH! Chapter 7! YAAAYYY! Read and Review!**

_CHAPTER 7/FINDING MIREILLE_

Mireille sat in the dark, her head bowed and hair falling over her eyes. The Walking Stone looked up at her, wondering what was going on. It could see tears falling onto the ground.

Shugo and everyone else stood there in shock, staring down into the bubbling lava. Every one of them were staring at the lava and wishing that Mireille would just jump up and laugh at them for worrying.

Rena was biting her fingernails off and Hotaru was sniffling. Rena refused to let herself cry, she looked over at Shugo to see what his reaction was.

He was standing stiffly. Eyes lowered and hair covering his eyes.

"I-I think she's gone…" Rena said hoarsely, in a voice so tiny and weak, she couldn't recognize it as her own.

No-one could see Shugo's expression. Everybody else was crying. How could anyone survive that?

"I'm going in after her." said Shugo.

"Whaaat?" Ouka cried.

Hotaru sobbed, "Shugo, you love Mireille so much, but jumping in there and killing yourself won't help you find her,"

"ONII-CHAN! IDIOT!" Rena bawled.

Shugo said, "I'm not gonna kill myself, I'm gonna go find her,"

Hotaru didn't say anything. She continued crying softly for the loss of her friend.

Ouka looked down into the pit of lava. "Well… she could be alive…" she looked somewhat doubtful and then brightened up. "OF COURSE SHE'S ALIVE, GUYS! She's our Mireille and she's stronger than that! She's probably standing down there waiting."

Rena looked at Shugo. "Shugo…"

Shugo thought she was about to cry or yell at him but instead, she said bravely, "Mireille's down there waiting for you, go and bring her back! You can be her hero!"

"Definitely!" Shugo said. "We'll be back!"

Shugo walked up to the pit and disappeared under the lava.

Hotaru wiped away another tear. "Wah, that is just too beautiful, he's risking himself to save the girl he loves!"

"Yeah…" Rena agreed as she watched the lava. "I just wish everything would work out and that everyone could be happy. But such thing doesn't exist around here. Especially here in The World. I can only hope that Shugo and Mireille try their best to pull through whatever lies ahead for them…"

"Uh-huh," hiccupped Hotaru.

Rena continued, "And all I can do now is step back and watch them. It's Mireille's turn to be the hero."

Shugo felt himself falling down deeper and deeper into the watery depths of the pit. Wait- watery?

Shugo looked around him, eyes wide. It's true, he thought, this is water! He let himself be dragged downwards and wondered why the appearance from above was molten lava.

And that meant Mireille was definitely alive.

Shugo dove deeper and swam downwards in a sort-of slant. It was getting harder to breathe and he sensed air nearby. He swam towards it in a hurry then surfaced and breathed.

It was a pocket of air trapped under the cave. Shugo heaved himself up and got out of the water. He was surprised that as soon as he got out of the water, the water looked like lava again.

He shook himself off and started to head into the dark tunnels around him, leaving a wet trail behind.

Mireille was sitting by herself in the dark and she was crying.

_Wah… I'm sorry I keep getting you into these messes and now I don't know what to do! Wahhhh… _

The Walking Stone, now sitting on her head, sensed something. Mireille sensed it too.

Footsteps.

The sound of water squelching.

Mireille looked up as the figure came to her. She gasped and tears spilled. "Shugo…"

Shugo was standing there, his mouth open. Just staring at Mireille with an expression on his face she had never seen before. He was wet and dripping but then he gave her a brilliant smile, one that was unmistakingly his.

Mireille put her hands over her mouth in shock as the tears rolled down her cheeks.

_is this a dream_

_if it is please don't wake me from this high_

_i'd become comfortably numb_

_until you opened up my eyes_

_to what it's like_

_when everything's right_

_i can't believe_

_you found me_

_when no one else was looking_

_how did you know just where i would be_

_yeah you broke through all of my confusion_

_the ups and the downs and you still didn't leave_

_i guess that you saw what nobody could see_

_you found me_

_you found me_

_so here we are and that's pretty far_

_when you think of where we've been_

_no going back i'm fading out_

_all that has faded me within_

_you're by my side _

_now everything's fine_

_i can believe_

_you found me_

_when no one else was looking_

_how did you know just where i would be_

_yeah you broke through all of my confusion_

_the ups and the downs and you still didn't leave_

_i guess that you saw what nobody could see_

_you found me_

_you found me_

_i was hiding till you came along_

_and showed me where I belong_

_you found me_

_when no one else was looking_

_how did you know how did you know?_

_you found me_

_when no one else was looking_

_how did you know just where I would be_

_yeah you broke through all of my confusion_

_the ups and the downs and you still didn't leave_

_I guess that you saw what nobody could see_

_the good and the bad and the things in between _

_you found me_

_you found me_

"Mireille! I found you!" He cried.

"Wah! Shugo!" Mireille jumped to her feet and ran into Shugo's arms.

Rena bit her fingernails nervously.

"It's been a long time. What if they really did die?" she started to cry.

Hotaru looked into the bubbling depths of the pit. "I'm worried, but I'm not gonna lose hope now. Rena, don't worry, I just KNOW they'll be okay."

Rena just started sobbing even louder, "And Shugo and Mireille had such very short lives!"

Ouka comforted her. "Hey, don't cry. You're stronger than that."

Rena wiped her eyes. "They're dead. I know it. And I was the one who encouraged Shugo to jump in there and kill himself!"

"Rena, I didn't know you were that worried about me!"

Rena looked up in surprise.

Shugo and Mireille had surfaced and were getting out of the lava/water, They were both wet, scratched, dirty and smiling. Mireille had tears in her eyes. She was on Shugo's back so that he was carrying her in a piggyback.

And no-one could believe that they were alive.

**Hi! Emichii here! Did you like that? I did! It was so beautiful! And there's still more to come! Next chapter's up next week! Read and review!**


	8. Chapter 8

**YAY! Hi everybody, how's it going? RareHunterMireille is going so well, I think it's the best fanfic I've written so far! Oh yeah, lemme give you an update of my current fanfic! I've got this one, and Promise Part 1- it looks like it's gonna be finished soon, and yeah, I just started my 13th fanfic! It's my first Angelic Layer fanfic! It's called Thinking about You! YAAYYY! **

**Okay I better stop talking now! Here's Chapter 8! YAY! **

**Oh yeah, I don't own .Hack. It's owned by Tatsuya Hamazaki and Rei Izumi!**

_CHAPTER 8/BALMUNG'S EVENT_

Reki turned to Balmung. "I can't believe they survived that,"

Balmung smiled. "Yeah, this girl is definitely worthy of being the Greatest Rare Hunter in The World."

Reki sighed. "I guess that means you're gonna butt out now and not cause any more interferences,"

Balmung shrugged. "I guess not. But the quest is far from over. They still have to find me and give me the Walking Stone."

Reki nodded.

Balmung stood up. "I'm going to enter the game now." He paused, "And this means I'll be seeing Rena again… hmm…"

"YAAYYYY!"

"YIPEEEEE!"

"NYAHA! YAY!"

Shugo's party was back together again and everyone was so happy. Even Zefie and Rena were getting along for a change.

After a while, everyone settled down again and Mireille spoke up, "Now all we have to do is get this Walking Stone to Balmung!"

Hotaru had the Walking Stone in her hands and was stroking in gently. "Eek! It's so _CUTE_!"

Rena had her head in the clouds. "Balmung! YAY! I can't wait to see him again! Maybe he'll give me his email address!"

Mireille and Ouka exchanged glances.

Shugo laughed. He was sitting cross-legged on the ground, wringing out his soaking hat. He added to the conversation, "I wonder what Balmung's gonna give you this time,"

Mireille jumped up excitedly. "I just know it's gonna be soooo rare!"

Rena looked a bit annoyed. "It better not be some crap item like the first time."

"Well… they weren't that bad…" Shugo mumbled.

Mireille grinned. "Oh, I know it won't. This quest was so hard they'd totally rip us off if they gave us something really bad."

"Yeah," said Shugo.

Zefie just looked on. Who knew what she was thinking?

Mireille paused and then a slight blush spread over her face. "Oh Shugo, I almost forgot."

She went up to Shugo and pulled him on to his feet.

"What?" Shugo wondered.

Mireille kinda looked at her feet. "I just wanna say thanks, Shugo. You're we're so great back there, and you saved my life heaps of times."

Shugo smiled. "Hey, that's okay! It was nothing!"

"No, really, Thanks, Shugo!"

Mireille stood on her toes, tilted her head up and kissed Shugo gently on the lips.

"AAARRGGGHHHH!"

"Um…"

"…"

"Heh heh heh…"

"Hee haha!"

"SHUGO YOU IDIOT!"

Rena was standing up now, face red and eyes bulging out of her head. Zefie was giggling, as was Hotaru. Ouka was laughing heartily.

Shugo and Mireille were standing there, both turning red.

"SHUGO I DON'T BELIVE YOU!" Rena screamed.

Rena was completely losing it. "First Zefie kisses you, and then Aura and Zefie and now Mireille! I mean, MIREILLE! ON THE LIPS! ARGH!"

Shugo had a sweat drop on his forehead. _Um, actually my first kiss was Aura when she revived me… and that one was on the lips too!_

Ouka said, "Rena, chill out."

"Yeah, Rena. Why are you so angry anyway?" Zefie asked.

Smoke came out of Rena's ears. "ARGH! Shugo's been kissed like 100 times already and I haven't even had my first kiss yet!"

Unfortunately for Rena, everyone cracked up. Rena wrung her hands, "It's not funny!" she cried.

When Shugo finally stopped laughing and Mireille wiped away tears of hilarity from her eyes, Zefie said, "Mireille, aren't you going to finish the quest?"

"… Oh yeah- that's right!" Mireille cried, as if the thought had just occurred to her.

Shugo smiled. "C'mon! Let's get going!"

Rena looked dreamy, "I can see Balmung again!"

Ouka's ears twitched. She whispered to Hotaru, "Does she realize that Balmung could be, like 30? Or 40? Or…"

Mireille picked up some information of Reki and started to head towards the place Balmung was supposed to be. Reki had been nice and even gave her a map.

"Where are we supposed to go?" wondered Shugo as he turned the map upside down and studied it.

"He's somewhere towards the back of the mountain/cavey thing we were before, behind it, towards the edge of the island," Mireille said, as she took the map out of Shugo's hands, turned in the right way round and put it back into his hands.

"Right!" Shugo said, "Now we turn this way…"

"No Shugo!" Rena said exasperated. "We go _this _way!"

They headed towards the left and Rena said under her breath, "no wonder he failed year 7 geography…"

Balmung stood at the top of the mountain, right at the edge. If anyone were to fall off the cliffy edge, they would surely die, but then again, they had to get up the mountain- and that would not be an easy task.

From the top of the mountain, Balmung could see the successors to the dot hackers. They looked like tiny dots from the distance, and after staring at them for a while, Balmung's eyes got all blurry and he got all confused.

Shaking his head and regaining his senses, he waited and watched Shugo, Mireille and the others fight their way to the top.

It was so rocky and steep, Mireille thought she was gonna die. Still, she pressed on, all of the stuff she and Shugo had gone through to get here wasn't gonna go to waste.

Rena told herself, _don't look down, don't look down! _It was such a long way to the bottom! But it was an even longer way to the top!

But what surprises them the most was Hotaru. She was climbing up the mountain as if she climbed them every single day. Maybe people in America did a lot of rock-climbing. (But then did it count in RPG's?)

"C'mon you guys!" she called, "We don't have all day! Wow! I can almost see the top!"

"Good for you," grumbled Rena as she pulled her left foot higher up.

Ouka looked cheeky. "Oh Rena… Balmung's up there waiting for you right now!"

"Oh yeah!" Rena cried, suddenly energized, she started climbing faster.

"Uhhwagh!" Mireille shrieked, as she felt her foot slip.

"Mireille!" cried Shugo, looking back to check on her.

Mireille grabbed onto another slab of rock on the mountain. "Don't worry, Shugo, I'm okay." but just after she said that, she lost her footing again and felt herself slipping downwards.

"Mireille!" Shugo shouted as he quickly reached down to grab her before she fell. Mireille clung onto his hand and finally, he managed to help her up.

They rested for a while on a huge slab of rock and then started to forge on. "Mireille, look at your hands!" Hotaru said, looking horrified.

"What's wrong with them?" wondered Mireille, as she looked down at the palms of her hands. They were scratched, bruised and bleeding from her nasty fall before.

"But we're do close!" she said, "We can't stop now!"

"Yeah," said Shugo, "I'll help her up,"

It was hard but Shugo managed to carry both him and Mireille up to the top. When he grabbed the very edge of the mountain, he heaved himself up, with Mireille on his back.

They clambered to their feet, tired, exhausted and bruised.

"Congratulations. I didn't think you'd make it this far," said Balmung's voice.

**YAAYYY! YAAYYY! YAAYY! Chapter 8 is done! Read and review! And chapter 9 will be out next week!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hi everybody! My name is Emichii and I write Rare Hunter Mireille! I'm sooo happy! We're already up to chapter 9! Wow! yaayyy! yipeee! I'm so grateful to everyone who reviewed! Thankyou sooo much! Okay! Here you go! Chapter nine! Yaayyy! Read and review! Oh and by the way, I don't own .Hack.**

_CHAPTER 9/FALLING_

"Congratulations. I didn't think you'd make it this far," said Balmung.

Shugo and Mireille stared at the legendary player, who was also a system administrator. Although they had seen him before, he never ceased to amaze them- because he was such a strong player.

"B-Balmung!" Rena cried.

Balmung looked at Rena but didn't show any sign of recognition. "Hello Rena," he said.

Mireille was standing by Shugo's side. "Balmung, I've completed the Rare Hunter Quest event thing." she said bravely.

Balmung didn't blink an eye. "Where's the Walking Stone then?" he asked flatly.

"Um… it's…" Mireille turned around nervously, looking around for Hotaru. Hotaru was standing behind Rena, with the Walking Stone sitting on her head.

"It's over there!" Mireille finished. She went over and took it.

Just as she was handing the turtle/Walking Stone over to Balmung, it got knocked out off her hands. Someone had pushed her over.

The Walking Stone flew out of her hands and she fell down to her knees along with it.

"What-" she started.

"You two again!" Shugo said angrily.

Standing towards the side, Raiou and Jayel stood triumphantly. Raiou had pushed Mireille over and now Jayel was standing there with the Walking Stone in her hands.

"You didn't really think we were just gonna let you guys take it, did you?" Raiou snickered.

"What?" Rena demanded. "You guys agreed with us that you couldn't get it from the middle of the lava!"

Jayel shrugged and smirked. "That's what we do. We leave all the dangerous and hard stuff to everybody else, then take the rare stuff right out of their hands.

Mireille jumped to her feet and retorted, "You know that's wrong!"

Jayel replied haughtily, "We're Rare Hunters. All Rare Hunters are like that," she stepped closer and looked down menacingly at Mireille.

"We Rare Hunters," she continued with an air of authority, "do not work together with a party. We don't need friends or other people to help us. We're hunters. Rare items, experience points and treasure come before anything else!" Jayel pointed at Mireille and said, "You're no Rare Hunter, just a loser."

She flicked her green hair over her shoulder and added, "Friends aren't important. Rare Hunting is just about the rare items. And because you're definitely not worth the title as Greatest Rare Hunter in The World, I'll just be taking this Walking Stone."

Ouka clenched her fists and exploded. "JUST WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE GIVING THAT GREAT BIG LECTURE ABOUT RARE HUNTING?" She ran up to Jayel and grabbed both her wrists with one of her hands. The Walking Stone fell out of Jayel's hands and fell to the ground.

Both Shugo and Raiou dived for it.

Ouka kept screaming her head off because this Jayel had insulted her one of her best friends. "I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW THAT MIREILLE'S MUM WAS THE LEGENDARY MISTRAL FROM THE DOT HACKERS!"

Mireille stared at everything before her. Shugo and Raiou were just about killing each other for the Walking Stone, and the Walking Stone was trying to crawl away- in the direction of Hotaru. Hotaru was crying her eyes out because of what Jayel had said; Rena was flirting with Balmung, who was watching Shugo and Raiou.

Zefie was standing aside, cheering Ouka on. Ouka was punching up Jayel but Jayel was quick and Ouka had trouble trying to catch her.

_Mirei felt like her hands on the controller were frozen. She didn't know what to do. _

"_Mirei! You'll have to stop playing soon!" her mum called, "we're so busy, you know that! We're moving tomorrow!"_

_Mirei knew that her mum's boss had transferred her to the next prefecture because of her work. And it could be a while before she'd be able to play The World again in the next few days. She couldn't just sit there, staring at the screen. _

"Please…" she started, quietly. But no-one could hear her. "…Please…" she said louder.

Nothing changed.

Everyone continued their fighting.

"Please…" she cried. "…Please STOP THIS RIGHT NOW!"

Everyone stopped and turned to her.

Mireille said, "I don't want us to keep fighting like this. Not over something as small as this… I know what your stereotypical Rare Hunter is, Jayel, but… I'm not like that… My mum and I are moving to the next prefecture tomorrow and I won't be playing for a few days after this… I just want to spend all my time in The World having fun… because I love all my friends, and I don't want anyone hurt…"

She looked towards the bruised and battered Shugo and Raiou, "We've all tried so hard and went through so much for this Walking Stone… to get whatever Balmung has in return for us… but if this is what's gonna come out of it… then… I wish we'd never even heard of this quest."

She seemed unsteady for a while then, but continued, "I… I… don't want anyone to get hurt!" The next few words that came from Mireille's mouth seemed more directed to Shugo than anyone else but they all got the message. "… I don't want you to fight because… I don't want anyone to get hurt… because I love you all so much!"

Tears started to roll down Mireille's cheeks. Shugo immediately started to head towards her direction, to comfort her, and Raiou had the chance to grab the Walking Stone.

He started to reach for it, but then drew his arm back. What Mireille had said, had got to him. He didn't want to be so rough and mean anymore.

"Wh-what do you think you're doing?" cried Jayel. She pushed away Ouka and ran towards the Walking Stone. "Why aren't you just grabbing it? You idiot!"

Jayel grabbed the Walking Stone and started to head towards Balmung. Shugo saw and shouted, "No way! You're not getting that Walking Stone so easy!"

Shugo ran towards Jayel and slammed against her. The Walking Stone flew out of her hands and bounced along the ground.

Shugo and Jayel raced each other for the Walking Stone. The Walking Stone turned around and started walking in the other direction. Jayel dove for it and hugged it to her chest.

Shugo grabbed it out of her grasp and threw it towards Mireille.

"NOOO!" screamed Hotaru. "Don't throw it! Don't throw it! It's alive!"

Mireille reached for the turtle but Jayel jumped in front of her and pushed it towards Raiou. But Raiou wasn't interested in it anymore.

Jayel was furious. "Fine then," she said angrily. "I guess I'll just have to do everything by myself!"

The Walking Stone was flying through the air. Shugo and Jayel fought to get it, and then Shugo fell over. His arms dangled over the edge of the cliff.

(They were on the top of a mountain thing remember?)

Jayel grabbed it then fell back, the turtle went flying again.

"No!" Hotaru whimpered. "It's the Walking Stone! It's supposed to walk, not fly!"

Shugo felt in his heart for Mireille. He loved her. And now he saw just how much pain she had gone through to build herself up to who she was now. All that stuff they had gone through to get the Walking Stone. He had done it all for her.

Even though he had gotten hurt, Shugo wanted Mireille to become the Greatest Rare Hunter in the World. And if she was to move to another prefecture tomorrow, all the moving and packing would take days. He wouldn't be able to see her for a few weeks but… she was important.

_Mireille was another player. He'd never met her but he knew her so well, well enough to fall in love with her. It was all a game, he knew that, and they probably could never be together but he wanted her to smile._

Shugo jumped forward to the Walking Stone. And for the second time, he was falling down. And down and down.

Tumbling through the air, falling off the cliff!

**Emichii: Thanks for reading chapter 9! thanks sooo much for reading! Don't forget to review everyone- suruno wasurenaidenee! Ohhh! That was so good! I'm so proud of myself! Yaayyy! Read and review! **


	10. Chapter 10

**Yaaayyyy! Yipeeee! I'm so happy! Ureshii! I'm so proud of RareHunterMireille! I consider it my masterpiece! This is chapter 10! And I don't own .Hack, and that stinks! **

_CHAPTER 10/BECAUSE WE CAN'T BE TOGETHER_

Shugo was plummeting through the air.

Hotaru was staring in shock, her hands cupped over her mouth. Who knew whether she was more worried about Shugo or the turtle?

The others were also in shock.

But Mireille ran forward immediately towards the edge of the cliff. She paused only a while to yell down to Shugo, "Shugo! I'm coming after you!"

Shugo was still falling through the air, he couldn't reply.

Then Rena found her voice and said, "Mireille, don't jump down there!"

"Are you crazy?" cried Mireille. "Shugo's always been there for me, and he's saved my life more than once. I'm going after him!"

Balmung didn't say anything. He looked like he had something planned. Just then Mireille had jumped off the cliff and was falling.

Shugo saw Mireille falling and he cried, "Mireille, what are you doing? Now we're both gonna die!"

Mireille reached out her hand and so did Shugo. They grabbed each other's hand and Mireille said, "Shugo, I… I just don't want to let you die! Because…"

She was crying now, the tears streaming down her face. "Because I love you and even though we'll never be together, I want you to know!"

Suddenly a huge flash of light lit up. And Rena stared amazed as the wings came. Out of Mireille's back, a pair of magnificent black feathery wings grew. They reached out to the sky and then started to flap.

Mireille was stunned. Awkwardly she flapped the wings and then, with Shugo, flew back up to the top of the mountain.

When they had landed, they didn't know what to say. Mireille turned to Balmung. "Did you do this? Or Zefie, what about you?"

Balmung smiled. "Mireille, it's because you've proven yourself to be the Greatest Rare Hunter in The World. That's your reward."

Shugo gazed at the wings in awe. "It's just like the one sin event."

Mireille sniffed as her eyes filled with tears. "I… I don't believe it… I..."

There was silence for a while. Everyone was just letting everything sink in.

"YAAAYYY!"

"Mireille, you did it!"

"Mireille, I'm so proud of you!"

Rena went up to Mireille and smiled. "Mireille, I knew you could do it,"

Mireille held her staff in her hands and sniffed. "Thanks Rena, you were all here to help me."

Rena shrugged good-naturedly. "It's all over now. And I know that you and Shugo will be great together!"

_Mirei smiled but it kinda turned out to be a disbelieving smile. Get real! He's a random guy from an RPG playing from the other side of Japan or something!_

Hotaru had to give Mireille a huge hug that left her choking. Shugo said, "Mireille, I knew you could do it! And it took so long, we went through so much but it's all over! You've completed the quest!"

Mireille looked at the ground, and wiped her eyes which were full of happy tears. She looked up at Shugo, "But Shugo, I couldn't have done it without you."

_But even so… Shugo… Mirei did like him. She slammed her fist into the desk and the desk shook, making the screen wobble. I am such an idiot! Me and Shugo? We can never be together._

Mireille tried to smile but it was uneasy. She said, "You know that this is the last time I can play in the World for a while."

"Yeah…" Shugo answered.

"Can I ask you something?"

"What is it?"

"Will you… will you wait for me?" Mireille said quietly. "I mean, I can't expect you guys to always be around and look out for me and everything but I want to keep on playing the World with you."

Shugo smiled. He held out his pinky. "I'll wait for you. Promise."

They made a deal. Then Mireille had to log out.

"Who knows when I'll see you guys again but… thanks for everything…" she sniffed, brushing away tears.

"You know we'll be right here waiting for you!" cried Shugo.

"Yeah," added Rena. "We're all one party and we're always gonna be together,"

Hotaru, Ouka and Zefie nodded their agreement.

"Well then… I guess this is goodbye…" Mireille cast a sad smile at her friends and turned and walked away. She was just about to log out when Shugo came running towards her.

"What? Shugo!"

He grabbed her hand and said quickly, though shyly, "Mireille, before you go, I just want to…"

Shugo kissed Mireille on the lips.

_I… just wanted to kiss you goodbye. Shugo knew everything in The World was a game but… when it came to this… he knew Mireille was gonna come back but she probably wouldn't be back for a few weeks. _

_A few weeks is nothing, but this was Mireille! She was an important person to him!_

_Yet once again he was faced with the awful truth. Right now their chance of hooking up or even meeting each other in person was 0. _

_Yeah, great._

_Your first love, your first crush… is another character on an online game._

Mireille's face turned red and she said, "I'll see you later," awfully quickly and logged off.

Shugo and the others didn't know what to say. Shugo was really worried but then he got a message.

"Dear Shugo, I'm sorry I left so abruptly but if I didn't log off soon then I'd never be able to do it. Everybody, I promise I'll be back before you know it and let's just all remember that we're friends, and no matter how far or how close we are; even if you're in America, Hotaru, even if we're just in the next prefecture, we'll always be together. Nya-ha!

I promise I'll see you soon,

Love Mireille."

**Hi everybody! I am soooo sorry that chapter was that short! I just kept getting distracted, like Ii jumped out of the seat 10 times. Once was to eat cake, since it's my dad's bday. I like cake! Cake is yummy! So does Saz. We both like cake. Okay this is really random. Anyway go check out Saz's fanfic. Her penname is Heartdevouredbydarkness. Okay, I'll update soon! Next chapter's the last one!**


	11. Chapter 11

**Konnichiwa! My name is Emichii! And wow! It's the last chapter already? I don't believe it. Yeah, and I have updated faithfully every single week. It took 10 weeks. 10 long weeks… (Yeah once I was so pumped that I wrote two chapters in one week)**

**Hmm… but there's more to look forward to. I can't wait till its October 31st! Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle volume 11 is gonna come out! Yaayyy! But then they still have to translate it and send it here to Australia… what a major yawn! Tsubasa reservoir chronicle rules! Clamp rocks! Tsubasa is my most fave manga in the whole wonky world! Yaayyy! **

**Okay better stop talking and finally… sob… the last chappie…**

_CHAPTER 11/THE LAST CHAPTER_

Mireille hadn't played in The World for the last three weeks but Shugo kept his promise. He still hung by Mireille's hideout, waiting and hoping that one day she'd be back.

"I guess moving to somewhere else really is a pain," Shugo told Rena. "It must be weird, all the unpacking and a new house and a new school and all that,"

"Yeah," agreed Rena. She looked tired.

Zefie was with them. She was there, sitting with Shugo, waiting patiently. She was an AI, she probably never got impatient.

Hotaru and Ouka weren't there. Hotaru had something to do and Ouka was hanging around with Kaz.

"Oni-chan?" said Rena.

"What is it?"

Rena looked annoyed. "I was just wondering why you kept getting kissed all the time?" she went over to Shugo and narrowed her eyes at him. "Have you been paying them to kiss you?"

"No!"

She sighed. "Ohhh… that's just so unfair! I still haven't had my first kiss yet!"

Shugo smiled. "Yeah but all the kisses I've had are in The World. I bet you'll be the first one to have a _real _kiss."

Rena brightened. "That's right!"

Shugo looked distrustful. "And it better not be Komiyama who gives you that kiss…"

"…um…"

"…?"

"Do you ever wonder about whether you and Mireille will be together?"

"Wh-WHAT?" Shugo cried, face turning bright red.

_Just then the doorbell rang. Shugo tore himself away from the screen and headed for the door. But even so, he was confused. Rena was right. _

_He'd fallen in love with Mireille but she was just another character in The World. He loved her but they would never be together, It was weird. When he had first met Mireille they had soon become friends but ever since their quest, Shugo had found himself falling for her. _

_But then the questions came. Who is Mireille anyway?_

_How old is she?_

_What does she look like?_

_Is she the same Mireille in real life than in the game?_

Rena and Zefie waited. They watched the frozen, paused Shugo warily.

"I wonder who that is?" wondered Rena. "Shugo's taking an awfully long time."

_Shugo opened the door and stared. _

_The person on the doorstep stared back. _

_She was short and younger than Shugo. About 12 maybe. She had short messy red-brown hair that fell to just above her shoulders. She looked worried, maybe even frightened._

_Something about the innocence in her eyes looked familiar. Shugo did a double take. He sputtered out, barely audible: "Mireille?"_

"What is taking that boy so long?" Rena wondered. She said to Zefie, "Just wait here, I'll be back."

_Mirei's eyes widened. "Shugo!" she cried and flung herself into his arms. And of course Shugo collapsed because how surprising can it be when a perfect stranger just throws her arms around you?_

_But this wasn't a stranger. It was Mireille. And although he'd never even seen her before, he knew her so well he could fall in love with her. _

_Rena came into to the hallway. "Shugo," she sighed. "Who is it…?"_

_Shugo sat up and tried to pull himself together. His head was spinning. _

"_Mireille," he started._

"_Actually, my name's Mirei, but same person!" Mirei said._

"_When I first met you guys you gave me your member address and your email. Later on, I asked you where you lived and weirdly enough, I ended up across the road, one house down from here!" Mirei said happily._

_The event was all so crazy that Shugo got all confused. He looked so confused that Mirei had to say, "What's wrong? Don't you like my company?"_

_Shugo smiled. "No that's not it. It's not like that at all."_

_Mirei sighed with relief. "I'm glad." She looked at the floor. "Because when I found out you lived near my new house I was hoping that you wouldn't think it was weird that… I came around or something… like, maybe it'd be better if we just stayed friends in The World…"_

"_What?" Shugo said. "That's not how being friends works!"_

_Mirei smiled. ""Yeah!" She clapped her hands together as she thought of something. "Oh yeah, Shugo! I came to give you something!" _

_She started to blush furiously. "I wanted to do this before someone else comes along and takes your first real kiss…"_

_And will you guess what happened next? As Rena turned an extremely interesting shade of purple, Mirei gave Shugo his first real kiss. As if he hadn't had enough already?_

"_UWAGHHH! SHUGO, YOU LIAR! ARGH! You stupid…" Rena swore._

_Mirei turned to the door so that Shugo couldn't see her red face. "Well, um, Shugo, I have to go now… but-" she turned back to look at him with a bright smile, "I'll see you really really really soon!"_

_Shugo smiled back at her. "Yeah, Seeya!"_

_Mirei let herself out the door, just as Rena attacked Shugo._

"_Wagh! Shugo, you traitor! What do you have to say for yourself? ARGH! SHUGOOOO!" _

The World is an online RPG game of over 20 million players. But The World is rightly named, it is the most advanced game of all time, that even though two very different people were so far away from each other, they were able to be together in the end.

This was Mireille's story, that's why it was called RareHunterMireille. Mireille and Shugo fell in love with each other for who the other person _was _and not what they looked like. Such faith in someone else turned out to be a happy ending. Sigh…

THE END! 

**UWAHHH! I don't believe it! It's finished! It's finished! YAAAYYYY! Yipeee! That was my masterpiece… uhwahhh… I'm gonna cry, I'm gonna cry… anyway… all my faithful readers… thankyou soooo much for reading! And if you check out my other fanfic you'll see that I usually provide a sneak preview of the newest fanfic that's coming out next week! YEAH! Okay then….**

**Guess what's coming out next! Yesss! Fruits Basket! Ohhh I love Kyo to bits! He's sooo cool! And I love Kisa! You can't get cuter than that! And Hatsuharu is funny too! Yaayyy! Oh I'm sooo excited! **

**And Saz knows that too! We had an athletics carnival today and all through high jump we were talking about fruits basket… eww… what about that time Kyo turned into that gross cockroach thingy? **

**Okay… so… **

**My new fanfic is gonna be called Someone Unexpected. Genre Romance/Humour. The couplings are Kyo/Tohru. Yeah and Kisa's fallen in love with someone totally unexpected, which means trouble for everyone. Like what the hell's Hiro gonna do? And Kyo is struggling with his feelings for Tohru but doesn't know what to do about it? And I'm sooo bored I'm gonna tell you more! **

**EVERYONE DON'T READ THE STUFF IN CAPITALS IF YOU DON'T WANT TO RUIN THE WHOLE ENTIRE PLOT! OKAY, SO KISA WAS ORIGINALLY GONNA FALL IN LOVE WITH KYO BECAUSE I RECKON IT WOULD BE WAY FUNNY, SEEING HOW SHE ACTS LIKE SHE'S AFRAID OF HIM… BUT THEN I FIGURED IT WOULD GET KINDA CONFUSING SO I CHANGED IT… THE SPECIAL SOMEONE IS YUKI! YEAH! HOW CUTE WOULD THAT BE? **

**Hmm… just a little more stuff to say before I stop writing RareHunterMireille. This was my masterpiece! I'm so proud of it! Someone bother to go read A Poke-Digi World? And tell me how I've improved! **

**And yeah, Saz? Remember that manga drawing competition I entered in the library? I won a prize! Someone told me that! Yaaayyyy! **

**Okay, bye everyone! Read and review! **


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